On March 25, 1957, two agreements were signed by representatives of West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg and Netherland in Rome upon which European nuclear energy and European Economic Community known as the Common Market were created.
European Economic Community was established to develop the economies of the member states into a single common market and to build a political union of the states of western Europe. The EEC also sought to establish a single commercial policy toward nonmember countries, to coordinate transportation systems, agricultural policies, and general economic policies, to remove measures restricting free competition, and to assure the mobility of labor, capital, and entrepreneurship among member states. The liberalized trade policies it sponsored from the 1950s were highly successful in increasing trade and economic prosperity in western Europe. In 1967 its governing bodies were merged into the European Community. In 1993 the EEC was renamed the European Community (EC); it is now the principal organization within the European Union.